A bottle is a container for liquids. Bottle can also be used as a noun to describe the act of enclosing or entrapping something. The word is derived from the Middle English noun botle, which is a diminutive of botel, or buttle. It is also the root of several other words, including bottled and bottle up.
The most common bottle shape is a Bordeaux style, which has straight sides with a curved shoulder. This type is generally the easiest to stack and has a good capacity for catching sediment. There are other types, most notably the Burgundy and Champagne bottles. A Champagne bottle has a wider base and heavier construction to withstand the pressure created by carbonation.
Bottles are a large source of litter, particularly in the United States where they make up nearly one-third of all trash. This is in spite of efforts to promote recycling, including laws that prohibit the disposal of certain types of bottles. There are many theories about the reason for this, and the topic is an active area of research by both academics and industry.
A variety of materials are used to make bottles, including glass, plastics, metals and paper. Plastic bottles are the largest single source of litter, and they are increasingly being replaced by glass, which is both biodegradable and recyclable. There are also a number of new bottle types, such as the biodegradable polyethylene bottles and the “eco-friendly” aluminum water bottle, that claim to be environmentally friendly and durable.
In addition to the various glass and other materials that can be used to make bottles, there are numerous methods for forming and shaping them. A major method is free-blown glass, where molten glass is shaped by blowing and hand manipulation without the use of a mold to form the bottle shape. This method of production is the most common for bottles that are not made using a mold and was very popular in the United States for pharmaceutical, hair dye, vinegar and other household items up through the mid-19th century.
Another method is the baffle mark, a line left on the parison from the junction of the blank mold and the baffle plate in a machine-made bottle (see the General Bottle Morphology page). This is joined by ghost seams at the neck end to form a circular pattern.
There are also a number of methods for making caps and closures for bottles. Some examples include a cork, a screw-thread, and a crown cap. Bottle caps can be made from a variety of materials, but the most common are cork, phenolic, and polyethylene. The screw-thread and crown caps are typically made of plastics. There are other types of closures, such as a corkless crown cap that uses a rubber seal, but these are not as common.